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2017 Berlin ePrix I
2017 Paris ePrix |next = 2017 Berlin ePrix II}} The 2017 Berlin ePrix I, otherwise known as the 2017 FIA Formula E BMW i Berlin ePrix, was the seventh round of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship, held on 10 June 2017 at the Tempelhofring at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany.'From Hong Kong to New York: FIVE NEW CITIES FOR THIRD FORMULA E SEASON', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 02/07/2016), http://fiaformulae.com/en/news/2016/july/from-hong-kong-to-new-york/, (Accessed 02/07/2016) The race served as the return of Tempelhof Airport as host of the FE Championship, with the field using a revised layout of the 2015 Berlin ePrix circuit, dubbed the "Tempelhofring".'New track layout revealed for Berlin ePrix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 27/03/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/march/new-track-layout-revealed-for-berlin-eprix/, (Accessed 21/05/2017) Qualifying would see Lucas di Grassi edge out for pole, the pair separated by just one thousandth of a second after their runs in Super Pole.'Di Grassi beats Lopez to pole by one thousandth!', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 10/06/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/june/di-grassi-beats-lopez-to-pole-by-one-thousandth/, (Accessed 16/06/2017) Felix Rosenqvist impressed on his way to third, having dominated the group qualifying, while Championship leader had a mistake ridden run to claim fourteenth on the grid. At the start it would be di Grassi who surged into an early lead, sprinting clear of Lopez as he fell behind a fast starting Rosenqvist.'Red hot Rosenqvist hands Mahindra first win', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 10/06/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/june/red-hot-rosenqvist-hands-mahindra-first-win/, (Accessed 16/06/2017) An equally quick start from Nick Heidfeld was enough to see the German sweep past Lopez too, relegating the Argentine to fight with his teammate Sam Bird for fourth, with the rest of the field making it through the long turn one without issue. The following laps saw the pace gradually settle down, with some near misses up and down the field as drivers adjusted their re-gen settings. Buemi, meanwhile, began his slow campaign through the order, taking and Adam Carroll early on, picking off his rivals with identical moves at turn nine. As the pitstops approached Buemi moved into the top ten, while title rival di Grassi was struggling with battery temps, allowing Rosenqvist to sweep onto the back of him. Then, on the lap of the stops, Rosenqvist, having saved more energy than the Brazilian, managed to sweep around the outside of the ABT Schaeffler on the entry to turn one. The pair duly stopped at the end of the lap, with everyone bar the two Andrettis joining them. After the stops it was Rosenqvist leading from di Grassi and Heidfeld, while Lopez ran on his own ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, although the Frenchman was to be penalised for an unsafe release. Nicolas Prost was in sixth after Sam Bird was dumped down the order after a poor stop, while Buemi sent his Renault e.Dams slithering down the inside of Daniel Abt just after to claim eighth. The closing stages were all about Buemi, who picked off Bird and Prost before launching a sustained attack at Vergne, but to no avail. Rosenqvist, meanwhile, had an untroubled run to the flag to claim his, and Mahindra's first win, while di Grassi and Heidfeld completed the podium. Lopez was a lonely fourth ahead of Buemi, Prost, Bird and Abt, as the five second penalty for Vergne relegated him to ninth. After the race, however, the tyre pressures on both Buemi's cars were found to be under the minimum set by Michelin. As a result the Swiss racer was excluded from the result. Background There were some significant changes to the entry list ahead of the seventh meeting of the 2016/17 season, with two teams fielding revised drive line-ups.'Sarrazin to TECHEETAH, Dillmann joins Venturi', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 03/06/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/june/sarrazin-to-techeetah-dillmann-joins-venturi/, (Accessed 03/06/2017) The cause was , who took the chance to replace Sébastien Bourdais in the Indy Car Championship after the latter's huge accident at the Indy 500. His decision left a vacant seat at Techeetah, although with reserve driver Ma Qing Hua having calendar clashes for the rest of the season an alternative solution was required. Seat Swapping That solution was to poach from the Venturi Formula E Team, meaning the Frenchman left the team he had been competing with since the inaugural FE season. Sarrazin's departure meant that there was another vacant seat at the Monegasque squad, although they quickly confirmed that Tom Dillmann would step up for the second race in a row. Both Sarrazin and Dillmann were confirmed in their seats for the rest of the season. There was also some unsurprising news from Renault e.Dams, who confirmed that their pairing of and Nicolas Prost would carry on together during the 2017/18 season.Scott Mitchell, 'Sebastien Buemi, Nico Prost extend Renault e.dams Formula E deals', autosport.com, (Haymarket Media, 09/06/2017), http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130003/buemi-prost-get-twoyear-renault-extension, (Accessed 11/06/2017) Parisian Performance Into the Championship and pole and victory combined in Paris had allowed to enhance his lead, the Swiss racer heading into the second half of the season with a 43 point advantage. Lucas di Grassi remained the only man seemingly capable of keeping Buemi in sight, with third placed Nicolas Prost a further 31 points away. Elsewhere, Nick Heidfeld had moved back into the top five, overtaking Jean-Éric Vergne on the way to fourth, while Dillmann's maiden points finish meant there were 21 scorers in the 2016/17 edition of the FIA Formula E Championship. Renault e.Dams benefited from the double non-score of ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport in the French capital to extend their lead in the Teams' Championship, having left their home race with 190 points on the board. Their German rivals were 75 points away as the only other team in triple figures for the season, although they seemed set to finish at least as high as second. Third placed Mahindra Racing managed to pull away from the chasing pack, while Techeetah slipped behind DS Virgin Racing and NextEV NIO after a miserable day in Paris. FanBoost was opened on 5 June 2017, and would remain open through until the opening minutes of the 2017 Berlin ePrix.'FanBoost opens for Berlin ePrix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 05/06/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/june/fanboost-opens-for-berlin-eprix/, (Accessed 06/06/2017) Entry List The full entry list for the is displayed below: Practice FP1 FP2 Qualifying The qualifying format remained unchanged in Berlin, with four groups of five randomly drawn drivers taking to the circuit in a six minute window.'Buemi drawn in qualifying Group 4', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 10/06/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/june/buemi-drawn-in-qualifying-group-4/, (Accessed 12/01/2018) Once each member of each group had set a time, the top five were to be siphoned off to compete in the Super Pole shoot, with the rest of the grid based on the other drivers' times from the Group stage. Super Pole would see each driver get a completely empty circuit to try and set another quick time, with the fastest of the quintet starting from pole position. Group 1 Sam Bird headlined the first group of the session, the Brit once again among the favourites to make Super Pole with DS Virgin Racing. Daniel Abt was also expected to do well with the ABT Schaeffler effort, while Adam Carroll would hope to at least break the top ten in the ever improving Jaguar. Completing the quintet would be the two Andrettis of António Félix da Costa and Robin Frijns, who both aimed the break the top ten despite the team's poor form. Bird would indeed do well in the first group, his time of 1:08.321 among the fastest set in either practice session. Abt ended the group second fastest, three tenths back, while Frijns got the better of Carroll, both over a second off of Abt's pace. Finally came da Costa, who was unable to set a full power lap and so ended the session slowest overall with a 1:11.147. Group 2 The second group of the day would see two Renault creations enter the fray, although it was Jean-Éric Vergne in the customer run Techeetah effort that was expected to get into Super Pole. Nicolas Prost would go into battle for the factory backed Renault e.Dams team but in the middle of a poor run of form, hoping to simply break into the top ten. That goal would be shared by the two Dragons of Loïc Duval and Jérôme d'Ambrosio, as well as Maro Engel in the first of the Venturis. Vergne ultimately proved to be the class of the second quintet, although his time of 1:08.457 was slower than he had managed in practice. Prost, meanwhile, failed to beat Abt for Renault, and was only just ahead of d'Ambrosio's impressive effort as the Belgian edged out Engel. Duval, in-contrast, was less than spectacular as he qualified down in nineteenth once the rest of the field had run. Group 3 Into the third quintet and title pretender Lucas di Grassi got his shot in qualifying, needing a strong result to try and challenge the runaway leader . The Brazilian would share the session with Felix Rosenqvist of Mahindra, as well as the second Virgin of , both of whom would expect to challenge for the final session. That left Mitch Evans and Nelson Piquet Jr. in the battle to make the top ten for Jaguar and NextEV NIO. It was Rosenqvist who shot to the top of the overall timesheet in the third group, the young Swede recording the fastest time of the weekend at 1:08.171, two tenths faster than di Grassi. Indeed, the Brazilian would end the session in fourth overall, with Lopez managing to squeeze inbetween the ABT driver and his teammate Bird. Piquet would qualify outside of the top ten with a general lack of pace, while Evans was disappointed to only manage sixteenth after the final group had run. Group 4 Championship leader Buemi would get his shot at qualifying in the final group of the day, and was the standout favourite to get into Super Pole from the quintet. Nick Heidfeld was another expected to do well in front of his home fans, while Oliver Turvey also had the potential to do well. was not expected to do as well as new teammate Vergne given that he had only tried the Techeetah Renault in practice that morning, while his Venturi replacement Tom Dillmann simply hoped to get into the top ten. There was a huge shock during the final session, as Buemi failed to make it into Super Pole in his ill-handling Renault, complaining about a lack of grip. Such was the Swiss racer's lack of pace that he only just managed to beat the rookie Dillmann, ending the session in fourteenth overall, while Sarrazin put the sister car up in twelfth. Turvey, meanwhile, had a strong run to seventh overall, while Heidfeld booked himself a spot in Super Pole by splitting to two Virgins. Super Pole Having qualified fifth in the group stage it was di Grassi who hit the circuit first in Super Pole, although he would break the traditional trend in FE by beating his earlier time. The Brazilian recorded a 1:08.312, although his strong effort was also instantly beaten by Lopez in the first of the Virgins. Indeed, the Argentine seemed to have truly found his feet in Berlin, but would miss out on provisional pole by 0.001s. With the equivalent of 5mm splitting the front two the pressure was on for Heidfeld, although the German driver's time would fade away after a strong opening sector. Bird went next but made a mistake early on, leaving him last of the group, before Rosenqvist hit the circuit after his record lap earlier in the day. Yet, the Swede was unable to match his earlier time and duly qualified third, meaning di Grassi took the three points for pole. It was also the closest ever gap between first and second in qualifying in FE history. Post Qualifying The final qualifying results for the are outlined below: Race Saturday afternoon in Berlin proved to be a warm affair, with air temperatures hovering around 23°C, while the circuit sat at around 34°C.ABB Formula E, 'Formula E Full Race Show: 2017 Berlin ePrix - Saturday', youtube.com, (YouTube: FIA Formula E Championship, 10/06/2017), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QogPiRiaeeY&index=7&list=PLiSlrzIEN5WL6jsKtputO-cC2ZAx-DVY1, (Accessed 22/05/2018) Those temperatures would mean that a little caution would have to be made in terms of cooling batteries, but otherwise the conditions were perfect for racing. Indeed, the only other concern for the teams would be tyre use, with the long sweeping first corner particularly punishing for the front right Michelin tyre. Report Lucas di Grassi would make a perfect start from pole to leap into an early lead, leaving José María López to sort himself out in second. Unfortunately for the Argentine he would make a mess of his start, allowing not only Felix Rosenqvist but Nick Heidfeld to dive up the inside of his DS Virgin into turn one. Teammate Sam Bird also tried a move but was on the inside, meaning López's dropped from second to fourth before the second corner. The rest of the opening lap was relatively clean bar some minor bumping and grinding, with di Grassi streaking clear at the front of the field ahead of the two Mahindras. Next up were the two Virgins of López and Bird, with Daniel Abt behind, despite the German's attempts to throw away sixth place into turn one at the start of lap two. Jean-Éric Vergne was next ahead of Maro Engel, while Championship leader Sébastien Buemi had made no progress off the line, and so remained in fourteenth. There would be some drama at the end of the second tour, with Stéphane Sarrazin throwing a late move at Nelson Piquet Jr. into turn nine, ultimately escaping in twelfth. Elsewhere, Mitch Evans appeared to have made a trip into the barriers at some point, for the Kiwi was spotted in the pits with broken front suspension at the end of the lap. He would rejoin several laps down after a repair had been tried, before ultimately deciding to have his spare car setup so that he could go for fastest lap instead. The race soon settled after that point, with Heidfeld seemingly holding up the two Virgins, while Buemi picked his way up the order with a dive on Piquet in turn one. Indeed, the Swiss racer was the centre of attention for most of the early stages, with a dive past Sarrazin in turn nine putting Buemi into twelfth at the end of lap seven. He would follow that up with an identical move on two laps later, moments after his teammate Nicolas Prost elbowed Engel out of the way through turn one. After Buemi moved past the Dragon, d'Ambrosio found himself under attack from Sarrazin, who was himself coming under pressure from Piquet. So desperate was the Frenchman's need to pass the Belgian that he threw his Techeetah at the Dragon on the inside of the final corner, only to lock the rear axle and run wide. d'Ambrosio scrambled through still in twelfth, while Sarrazin had to defend heavily from Piquet to retain thirteenth into turn one. Back with Buemi and the Swiss racer was now carving his way through the lower end of the top ten, a move on Oliver Turvey into turn six putting him into the points. A few laps later and the #9 Renault was scything past Engel for ninth at turn nine, before sprinting off the catch the queue of cars ahead. Indeed, amid the fighting lower down the field, Heidfeld had suddenly pulled clear of López and co., leaving the Argentine to lead a line of cars piloted by Bird, Abt, Vergne and Prost. Indeed, it seemed as if both Mahindras were on the warpath as the pitstops approached, with Rosenqvist cruising into the mirrors of di Grassi as the race passed lap twenty. The sight of the Swede's Mahindra clearly spooked the Brazilian, for di Grassi locked up twice in the space of four corners on the twentieth tour. That allowed Rosenqvist to get even closer ahead of the pitwindow opening, with the Swede in striking position as they started lap 22. Rosenqvist's move was so immediate on di Grassi that it seemed to catch everyone out, for the Mahindra simply drove around the outside of the ABT Schaeffler into turn one. Having seen his closest challenger go ahead, di Grassi tried to mount a response, throwing his car at the back of the Swede into turn six. Both then had huge lock-ups into the turn nine hairpin before darting into the pits, followed by everyone bar the two Andrettis at the very back of the field. The two Andretti drivers had opted for an alternative strategy, going long on their first stint to try and benefit from a safety car. Unfortunately for them their pace was so poor that both Rosenqvist and di Grassi manged to complete their stops before Robin Frijns passed the pit exit, meaning he only jumped up to third before his stop. The Dutchman would duly stop at the end of lap 23, while António Félix da Costa lasted until the end of the following tour. That said, da Costa would have an impact in the fight for fourth, as his slow pace on his in-lap allowed gaps to appear in the now ex-López train. Indeed, the Argentine had already benefited from poor stops for teammate Bird and Abt, meaning Vergne and Prost were a couple of seconds away from his tail. The slow da Costa ultimately slipped behind the Argentine without issue, with Vergne and co. left to sort it out amongst themselves. Furthermore, the delays in the pits had allowed Buemi to almost halve the gap the Vergne led group, and as Bird sent his Virgin diving past Abt for seventh, the Swiss racer pulled right onto the German's tail. It would take a couple of laps before Buemi got into a proper striking position, before simply cruising past the German along the start/finish straight as Abt decided to regen rather than defend. By this stage Abt had fallen off the back of the Vergne train, meaning Buemi still had work to do to make further progress. With a little over ten laps to go it was clear that all the fighting would be for fifth, with Rosenqvist pulling clear of di Grassi, while Heidfeld and López were making little ground. Indeed, Buemi's latest lunge into turn nine, this time to take seventh from Bird, would prompt teammate Prost into action, with the Frenchman knowing he would have to surrender his position if Buemi caught up to the back of him. Prost duly sent a lunge at Vergne into turn one at the start of 35, only to see the Techeetah block the move with a lunge of his own to the inside of the corner. That lunge by Vergne proved costly for Prost, with the Frenchman easing off down the start/finish straight on the following lap to hand Buemi sixth. That left the Swiss racer squarely in the mirrors of Vergne, although whether the Swiss racer had any need to take the Frenchman soon came to the fore as news of a penalty for Vergne was released. Indeed, Vergne had been slapped with a five second time penalty for an unsafe release, after his Techeetah crew had released the Frenchman right into the path of Tom Dillmann. Indeed, Buemi would make one attempt to pass the sister car into turn nine, although Vergne managed to deny the Swiss racer the inside line. That, ultimately, proved to be the last piece of action on track, leaving Rosenqvist to cruise home to claim his first FE victory, two seconds clear of di Grassi and Heidfeld. López was a lonely fourth ahead of Vergne, while Buemi and Prost had eased their pace on the final lap to make sure they had enough energy to finish. Unseen, Abt had moved past Bird having caught onto the Vergne train in closing stages, while Engel collected the final point in tenth. After the race, however, it was found that Buemi had finished the race with illegal tyre pressures on both his cars, meaning he was to be disqualified from the result. Renault e.Dams considered an appeal but ultimately ceded defeat, meaning Buemi was thrown out of the results. Turvey was thus put back into the top ten, while Vergne, having been originally classified in ninth, was promoted to eighth. Result The final classification of the is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold. * Indicates a driver was awarded FanBoost during the race. ** Vergne received a five second penalty after the race for an unsafe release. *† Buemi was disqualified after the race for using illegal tyre pressures.'Buemi excluded from Berlin Race 1 result', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 10/06/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/june/buemi-excluded-from-berlin-race-1-result/, (Accessed 11/06/2017) Milestones * Third Berlin ePrix to be staged. ** Second time that Tempelhof Airport has hosted an ePrix. * Second pole position set by Lucas di Grassi. ** His margin over was the smallest in FE history at just 0.001s. * Maiden victory for Felix Rosenqvist. * Mahindra Racing earned their first victory as an entrant and manufacturer. * Third podium in a row for Nick Heidfeld. * Nicolas Prost became the only driver to have scored at every race in 2016/17. * Maiden fastest lap set by Mitch Evans. ** Also the first to be set using a Jaguar powertrain. * End of Sébastien Buemi's 22 race scoring streak. Standings Despite missing out to maiden winner Felix Rosenqvist in the race, Lucas di Grassi did manage to make a dent in Sébastien Buemi's Championship lead. The Swiss racer's advantage was still over twenty points, although the Swiss racer would need a perfect result in the second ePrix of the weekend to guarantee he would still lead after the visit to New York. Behind di Grassi there was a tight three way scrap for third in the standings, with Nicolas Prost, race winner Rosenqvist, and Nick Heidfeld covered by six points. Renault e.Dams continued to lead the Teams' Championship after the first of the Berlin ePrix in 2016/17, with only minor damage made to their advantage. ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport had reduced the gap to the French squad to 66 points, but with Mahindra Racing claiming a double podium finish, it seemed as if they would be looking over the shoulders in a fight for second. DS Virgin Racing held station in fourth ahead of NextEV NIO, while Venturi moved ahead of Dragon Racing at the foot of the table. Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown. References Videos and Images: * References: Category:Berlin ePrix Category:2016/17 ePrix